Typee
A Peep at Polynesian Life During a Four Months' Residence in a Valley of the Marquesas
Will be published approx. on 21. February 2013
Book
Paperback/Softback
364 pages
978-0-9854902-1-8 (ISBN)
Description
Almost from the time of its publication in 1846, Melville's first book, based on his own travels in the South Seas, has been recognized as a classic in the literature of travel and adventure. Although initially rejected as too fantastic to be true, Typee was immensely popular and regarded in Melville's lifetime as his best work. It established his reputation as the literary discoverer of the South Seas and inspired the likes of Jack London and Robert Louis Stevenson. Two common sailors jump ship and are held in benign captivity by Polynesian natives. Through the narrator's eyes we see a literate (if romanticized) portrait of the people and their culture presented in vivid, even scientific, detail. Melville's racy style and irreverence toward Christian missionaries caused a scandal, and critics denounced the narrator's suggestion that the native life might be superior to that of modern civilization. An adventure story above all, albeit one with a philosophical bent with evil and mystery lurking beneath the idyllic setting, Typee is a combination of elements that even early in Melville's career hinted at the towering ambition he would fulfill with Moby-Dick.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
California
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Weight
327 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-9854902-1-8 (9780985490218)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Herman Melville (1819--1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick. On January 3, 1841, he sailed from Fairhaven, Massachusetts on the whaler Acushnet, which was bound for the Pacific Ocean. He was later to comment that his life began that day. When he died in 1891, he was almost completely forgotten. Jonathan Evison is the bestselling author of three novels, All About Lulu, West of Here, and The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving. In 2009, he was awarded a Washington State Book Award and the Richard Buckley Fellowship from the Christopher Isherwood Foundation. He lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington, with his family. Hershel Parker is the H. Fletcher Brown Professor Emeritus at the University of Delaware. He is co-editor with Harrison Hayford of the landmark Norton Critical Edition of Moby-Dick (1967 and 2001) and Associate General Editor of The Writings of Herman Melville. Volume 1 of Parker's two volume biography, Herman Melville, A Biography, Vol. 1 1819-1851 and Vol. 2, 1851-1891, was one of two finalists for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize in Biography. Each volume of the biography won the highest award from the Association of American Publishers, the first volume in the category of "Literature and Language" (1997) and the second volume in a new category of "Biography and Autobiography" (2003).